


Proximity, danger, deprivation.

by virginie



Category: Veep
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 21:42:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5471711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virginie/pseuds/virginie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a security threat at the Whitehouse and Dan and Jonah get locked in a closet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Proximity, danger, deprivation.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zaganthi (Caffiends)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffiends/gifts).



Jonah’s best and only friend growing up was Dan Edgeton. Dan was freckled, short and semi-wild against Jonah’s pale, tall and terrified. Dan stepped into Jonah’s life on the rural school bus in Hollow, Indiana, population 591, aged 9-and-a-half, and out of it, abruptly, aged 13.

Dan left Jonah perpetually confused. His namesakes turned up everywhere in Jonah’s life. Dan Locke and Dan Spinney at IU; Locke the asshole who handcuffed a drunk and trusting Jonah to a bike stand in the quad, stripped off most of his clothes and left him for faculty and students to discover on a chilly Monday morning, and Spinney the righteous asshole who outed Jonah for attempting to cheat on an undergrad stats exam. Confusing because every time Jonah meets a Dan, he thinks: friend. And every time, he’s wrong.

“It would really help if you weren’t such a giant fucking dick, Jonah,” says Dan, his voice still scratchy from shouting.

“It would really help if you weren’t such a giant fucking dick, Dan,” Jonah mimics back.

It’s hot and dark and they can’t hear anything from the corridor. Dan thumps on the back of the door, but weakly.

“Oh, fuck you, Jonad. Of all the fucking people, I have to be stuck in here with a deformed eggplant like you. History could be happening outside.”

“Well I don’t relish your company either, Dan. To think, Catherine was visiting. Half an hour in here with me would give her plenty of time to work out her crush.”

“No women ever, at any time or in any place, has had a crush on you, Jonah.”

“Proximity, danger, deprivation, Dan. Ideal conditions.”

Dan snorts. “No women ever, Jonah. You’re still you."

Jonah is sitting on the floor with his back against the back wall of the closet, his knees drawn up and pressed to the left against the metal shelves. Dan's back is against the door and his position mirrors Jonah's, knees tight against the metal shelves on the other side, as far away from Jonah's as possible. They've remained completely tensed by unspoken mutual agreement for what feels like hours. Jonah’s ass is killing him.

“I can’t sit like this any longer,” Dan says. “My basic need to avoid all contact with you is now weaker than my will to remain in intense pain in order to do it.”

Jonah gives up at the same moment and suddenly their aching knees sag together in the middle.

“Don’t sweat all over me,” says Dan. “This suit is worth more than your education.”

Dan Edgeton sat next to Jonah on the bus, grinned at him, grabbed the schoolbag from Jonah’s lanky knees and pulled out his Star Wars lunchbox. He rifled through it, selected a small resealable bag of crisps and began munching on them.

“Wanna be friends?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Jonah in a voice so quiet it came out as a whisper. Dan raised a rust coloured eyebrow at him. “Yes,” said Jonah more normally.

Dan’s phone buzzes in the dark. He scrambles for it.  

“What, what?” says Jonah.

Dan fumbles and it drops in his lap. “Fuck!” he says. He picks it up and stares at the screen, his face a pale glow.

“What!” Jonah yells. “What, Dan, what!”

“Christ, will this torture never end?” Dan groans.

Jonah grabs the phone out of Dan’s grasp and holds it above his head, staring up. Dan tries to pull his arm down again, but is no match for the sheer length.

“You’re such a mutant”.

The message reads: Could be a few more hours. Hope you’re having fun with the missing link.

“A few more hours, what the fuck are they doing?”

“Give my phone back, dugong.”

Jonah gives it back. “She’s loving this.”

“Oh yes, this is Amy’s birthdays, Christmases and orgasms all come at once.”

Dan taught Jonah how to shoplift. Jonah would distract Mrs. Flagg with stories of his schoolwork and plans to become the President while Dan stole chocolate bars from the lower half of the stand. They’d eat some and sell the rest at school at a reduced rate, using the money to legitimately buy sweets from time to time so Mrs. Flagg never caught on.

Dan introduced Jonah to pornography, via his Grandfather’s vintage Playboy magazines. They were stashed in a box in the attic at Dan’s house and they’d spend hours up there leafing though them. Once Dan generously let Jonah take an issue home. His mother found it and he was grounded for a month, unable to see Dan out of school hours. Jonah missed Dan so much he got brave enough to escape the house after dark and visit him. They’d arrange to meet by the tree where they stashed their stolen chocolate. Dan lifted the odd thing even without Jonah to run distraction, so they’d always have plenty to crunch on while they read Playboy by torchlight.

Once Dan suggested to Jonah that they practice kissing and feeling each other up. They did, and although it didn’t do much for Jonah it worked for Dan. He'd ended up with sticky pants, and Jonah felt warm that he’d helped his friend out. He'd offered to do it as often as Dan wanted, but Dan didn’t take him up on it.

Stuck in the sweaty dark with Dan, Jonah thinks about that. How he didn’t see the loneliness in the eyes of his only friend. He has a sharp pang of missing him, like it was just yesterday.

He’d said goodbye to him on the bus, and that was the last time. Dan went home and hung himself from the dead stump in his backyard. Jonah is glad he didn’t choose their chocolate tree instead, but he supposed it was too high and awkward. The stump had a strong branch protruding from it, at just the right height for a short 13-year-old boy.

Jonah’s mother had come into his room and woken him at 6am the following morning. She’d explained that Dan was gone. Jonah didn't understand what she meant. His ears were rushing with the sound of blood and wind and he could barely hear her.

When he was 15, Jonah’s mother explained that it had come out that Dan had been regularly beaten by his Dad. Jonah had wanted to burn Dan’s house down after that, but he never did.

“Hey, asshole,” says Dan in the dark. “Whenever the fuck we get out of here I’m going to make sure I’m always more than 20 feet away from you at all times. I’m getting a proximity alarm just so this never happens again.” He shines his iPhone torch in Jonah’s eyes.

Jonah turns his face to the wall. “Fuck off, Dan.”

He’d thought they’d be friends.


End file.
